Returning to before
by sabrielfaerie
Summary: Harry leaves the wizarding world after his wife dies, but when his daughter turns eleven he finds himself faced with returning to the world he abandoned. REPOSTED because so many people complained about the ending on the other one
1. 1

Elisabeth stretched and slid out from under the covers. It was three in the morning and she desperately needed a drink. As she pulled on her slippers her eyes fell on the unopened letter that had caused her father so much distress the day before. In fact it had bothered him so much Elisabeth had decided not to open it. She glanced at the thick envelope. It was not the first time she had received a letter but the ones in the past had been addressed to both her and her father, and he had not let her read them, he had, in fact, not read them himself. But despite the lack of replies the letters had continued to come at random throughout the year, and upon receiving one her father had always poured himself a stiff drink and stared at the envelope, as if daring it to do something.  
  
She opened the door and padded down the hallway to the stairs. She glanced in the hall mirror and looked at her reflection, hoping she would catch a glimpse of her late, barely remembered mother. But she was her father's daughter, and that was a fact. It was a fact that seemed to distress him almost as much as the letter, and she cried almost every night, wishing that she could for once look like her mother so her father would smile.  
  
She sighed and went downstairs. She poured herself a glass of water and turned to go back to her bedroom when she heard an array of voices from the front room. Her heart jumped into her throat and she crept closer to the door so she could hear what was going on.  
  
"Ron! Be quiet! You'll wake Harry, or worse his daughter and then where will we be?"  
  
"Yeah dad! Shut up."  
  
"You too, Will."  
  
"Haha, mum told you to shut up."  
  
"Anna, one more word from either of you and I'll put a silencing charm on you AND keep you from the World Cup." This entire conversation was staged in loud whispers and Elisabeth didn't have to strain her ears to hear what they were saying.  
  
"Lavender and Neville better hurry up and get here. Are they bringing the kids?"  
  
"I think so, I'm not sure if they're bringing the baby. But Lavender did say something about them being a bit later, Neville had to make sure all the kids got their Hogwarts letters on time-McGonagall didn't have time this year so she called him in.I still can't believe he's Herbology teacher."  
  
"Neville was always good with Herbology, Hermione."  
  
"I know but still, do you really think he can work with Snape?" the woman giggled.  
  
"You'll be there"  
  
"Right Ron.right." Elisabeth didn't listen to the rest of the conversation. The letter on her dresser, it was from Hogwarts. She raced back upstairs and grabbed it, tearing the seal and unfolding the envelope.  
  
HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY  
  
Headmaster: Minerva McGonagall (Order of Merlin, Second Class, International Confed. Of Witches, Quidditch Confed., Salem Witches Institute, Foreign Ambassador)  
  
Dear Ms Potter, We are pleased to inform you that you have a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment. Term begins on 1 September. We await your owl by no later than 31 July.  
  
Yours sincerely,  
  
Bathalbert Binns Deputy Headmaster  
  
She went back downstairs and listened at the door, it appeared that Lavender and Neville had arrived, and they had brought the baby. There was muted laughter and muttered conversation but Elisabeth didn't listen to it, letter in hand she raced up to her fathers room and leapt onto his stomach, efficiently waking him.  
  
"'Lisbeth, what on earth." he fumbled for his glasses and sat up, staring at his daughter as he had once stared at a bug-eyed house-elf named Dobby. "I opened the letter." She said, watching him closely to gauge his reaction.  
  
"Bloody Christ." He muttered. "And?"  
  
"Daddy, do you know about Hogwarts?"  
  
"Oh Christ.I think we need to go downstairs to talk about this."  
  
Elisabeth nodded, excitement bubbling in her chest at the thought of meeting the people downstairs. If they really were people.  
  
Her father went down the stairs slowly, rubbing his eyes and hitching up his pants. Her father was a handsome man and every year when they went to conferences with female teachers they all hit at him but he would smile politely and twist his wedding ring. Like his daughter Harry Potter was not popular. In his adulthood he had only one friend, and he often thought that perhaps he should go on a date or two, Elisabeth deserved a mother, but he was a shy man, and the few dates he did go on ended in disaster. So instead he sat at home, night after night, watching his daughter play alone. He reached the bottom of the stairs and scratched his head. But he did not open the door to the front room, turning instead, into the kitchen. He made to pour himself a glass of water when a commotion from the front room sent him racing for the door-and his daughter.  
  
"Sirius!" the voice hissed "get off of me!"  
  
"I'm not Sirius! I'm George!"  
  
"Whoever you are shut up!"  
  
Harry glanced at his daughter who's eyes were wide with excitement. He pushed open the door and went inside, Elisabeth close behind him.  
  
"What in Hell?"  
  
What in Hell indeed thought Elisabeth, looking around at the front room. At the foot of the fire place a redheaded young man was pulling what looked to be his identical twin off of a thin man who looked to be about fifty. Another man stood, brushing soot from long black robes and next to him a pretty, bushy haired woman sat buddha style on the floor, holding a baby on her lap. A red haired young man was giving her a shoulder massage and brushing a girl about Elisabeth's age's hair at the same time. A dark headed man was sitting with his wife's head in his lap, three children, all Elisabeth's age, sat chatting at his feet. As soon as Elisabeth and her father entered the room everyone stopped talking for a moment and then-  
  
"HARRY!"  
  
The bushy haired woman tossed the baby to one of the redheaded twins and her husband dropped the brush as they both sailed towards Harry, trapping him in their embraces. The others quickly joined them, hugging, kissing, laughing and talking.  
  
Finally they all got to sit back down, the redheaded twin disentangled himself from the old man and everyone sat breathlessly, waiting for Harry to speak, finally he did.  
  
"How did you guys find me?"  
  
"Oh it was quite easy, we had to wait nine years of course, but when they started sending out Hogwarts letters we just had to find Elisabeth's name on the list and we found your address. Oh Harry! We've missed you so much!"  
  
"Are you going to come back?" the redheaded man asked.  
  
Elisabeth watched her father, he opened and closed his mouth several times without saying anything and finally Elisabeth couldn't wait any longer.  
  
"Come back where? Who are you?"  
  
The bushy haired woman tossed her head back and laughed.  
  
"My name is Hermione Granger, this is my husband," she gestured at the redheaded man, "Ron Weasley. This is Neville Longbottom," she nodded at the dark-haired man, "and his wife, Lavender. Those two," she pointed at the twins "are Fred and George Weasley. Those trouble makers are Remus Lupin and Sirius Black," she grinned at the two older men. "And then these guys," she pointed at the four children in front of Ron, "Are Anna, Moira, William and Daniel." The four children smiled and waved at her. "And the baby is Cadian. All of us, with the exception of Sirius and Lupin, and of course the kids, are friends of your father's from school."  
  
"Hogwarts?" Elisabeth asked eagerly.  
  
"Hermione." Harry said through his teeth.  
  
Hermione looked at him for a moment, and then obviously decided he wasn't much of a threat to her. "Yes."  
  
"Then it's real?" Ron grinned, "you betcha kiddo."  
  
Harry looked at them for a moment, then turned back to his daughter, "'Lis, I need to talk to Ron and Hermione for a minute, would you mind taking Anna and Moira and William and Daniel up to your room?"  
  
Elisabeth nodded and glanced shyly at the other kids, who got up off the floor and followed her to her room.  
  
They five of them sat in a circle on Elisabeth's bed and William initiated the conversation.  
  
"So you don't, like, know anything about Hogwarts or your dad, or anything?"  
  
Elisabeth shook her head.  
  
"Oh you just wait! Hogwarts is going to be awesome. I just wish mum and Uncle Neville didn't work there." Anna lamented.  
  
"I know, I told you guys, we should have bound and gagged the lot of them."  
  
Elisabeth giggled.  
  
"I'm serious!" Daniel exclaimed. "Don't listen to him. He's a prat."  
  
"Am not!"  
  
"Are too!"  
  
"Are you guys brother and sister?" Elisabeth asked.  
  
"Nope. Anna and William are Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione's kids. Me and Daniel are Neville and Lavenders kids." Moira smiled, "It used to be you could identify a Weasley by the red hair and freckles-"  
  
"But Will dyed his hair and I charmed off my freckles."  
  
"Charmed them off?"  
  
"With a wand. I did a spell and they disappeared."  
  
Elisabeth gaped and Anna laughed. "You don't know any of it at all do you?"  
  
Elisabeth shook her head and William smiled. "Be prepared for a shock."  
  
It took the children an hour and a half to tell Elisabeth about the world she had been born into but by the time they were done she knew everything they knew (and then some, just to add a little bit of spice)  
  
There was a soft knock on the door and Harry came in. "You guys should come downstairs, get some breakfast, we have a lot to talk about." 


	2. 2

Elisabeth watched silently as her father put the kettle on the stove and then joined them at the table. Elisabeth sat between Anna and one of the redheaded twins.  
  
"You can move over you know, I won't bite." Elisabeth blushed deeply and edged closer to the twin.  
  
Hermione rolled her eyes; "I wouldn't count on it." All of a sudden the mans hands were on her shoulders and he was pretending to gnaw on her neck. Elisabeth screamed and knocked her chair over. "GEORGE!" Hermione yelled, but everyone else was laughing, even her father.  
  
"I'm sorry sweetheart, come sit down, it's all right." He was smiling kindly and nodding at the righted chair, but Elisabeth edged over nervously.  
  
"You might want to chew someone else's neck, eh George? She's not used to it."  
  
"A little late for that." Hermione said dryly.  
  
"Hermione! Shut up, he's trying to sound fatherly."  
  
The man named Sirius snorted. "He's trying to cover up the fact that he was laughing at her a moment ago.'  
  
"And failing miserably." The man called Remus said.  
  
Her dad shook his head and looked at Elisabeth, who seemed close to tears. "It's all right pet, every one of us have been attacked by Fred and George."  
  
"Some people more than others." Neville said.  
  
"We were going to start a club but there were to many of us." Lavender said, smiling.  
  
"AHEM!" the other twin, Fred, blasted, "the real reason we're here, if we could get back on topic people."  
  
Harry got up and poured everyone tea, and after a moment of confusion in which everyone but Fred and George got bitten by a tea cup (much of the confusion caused by Elisabeth who was not used to such workings) they settled down for business.  
  
"Why are you guys here?" Harry asked, "I mean, I know why you're here but why all of you?"  
  
"We figured you would through us off more successfully if there were more of us." Ron replied.  
  
"Harry, we want you to come back, you've had sufficient time to brood over Susan's death and the war, we need you back."  
  
Elisabeth was surprised at Sirius' bluntness, even her father's best friend, Uncle Rosco, had rarely mentioned her mothers name. And never with full force, only in the barest of whispers, when her father had tried to drown his misery in whisky and Elisabeth had had to call Rosco because he wasn't making any sense. Her father had never hit her, he seemed absolutely horrified at the thought, but his incoherent mutterings when he was drunk was like a blow in itself.  
  
She gaped openly at the man, but he was not looking at her, only at her father.  
  
He swigged down his tea (I say swigged because it wasn't really tea, but scotch) and looked at the man. "Say I do go back, what's there for me?" There was a sudden whirling from the front room and a tall, burly man dressed in robes even wilder than Sirius and Remus' burst into the kitchen.  
  
"Ah, Oliver, fashionably late, as usual." George said, grinning. He pulled a up a chair and set it between himself and Elisabeth, "Come, sit, I don't think Elisabeth really wants to sit next to me."  
  
Elisabeth started to protest, not wanting to hurt George's feelings but Oliver sat down and smiled at her, "Hello Elisabeth, I don't blame you in the least."  
  
"Oliver." Harry said, he seemed to be lost for words.  
  
"Long time, no see old friend." Harry poured the man a cup of tea and sat back down.  
  
"So Harry, this answer your question?" Ron asked.  
  
"What?"  
  
"Harry, if you come back you have Quidditch, that's what's there for you. I'm captain and Keeper of the Wasps (this explained the yellow and black robes, Elisabeth noted) and we just lost our Seeker. She went and got pregnant."  
  
"Oliver! She didn't just go out and get pregnant, they've been trying for years."  
  
"Yeah, well, you know Oliver. Remember when Harry was almost killed and he got mad because we lost the Cup?"  
  
Everyone laughed and agreed that, yes, Oliver was a fanatic, but that's why they loved him and they wouldn't have him any other way.  
  
"ANYWAY." Oliver started again, "What do you say Potter, will you come back?"  
  
"I haven't been on a broom in thirteen years, you can't expect that I'll just go out there and be as good as I was before."  
  
"Like hell! If you're half as good we might make it into the finals. But that's beside the point Potter, if we train you up, get you on the pitch regularly, you'll be as good as new."  
  
"Somehow I can't help but thinking that you didn't come over here to bring me back because you missed me, I think you want me back because you want a good Quidditch team."  
  
"Not even close, if we had just wanted a good team I would have dragged Charlie Weasley over by sheer force." Elisabeth looked at the man and decided that he probably would do just that.  
  
"What about Elisabeth?" this did not sound to Elisabeth like genuine concern, but rather, a last ditch attempt to get out of whatever it was they wanted him to do.  
  
"What about her?" Fred asked, "She'll be in school most of the year, and when she's on holidays she can go to a friends house while you're working. That's what everyone else does."  
  
Harry looked at his daughter and saw that he would be getting no help from over there.  
  
He sighed and looked around the table, "so how do you suppose we do this?"  
  
Elisabeth smiled. 


	3. 3

Elisabeth rolled out of bed and glanced at her alarm clock. 3:52 p.m. She changed quickly and went downstairs where she was met with the delicious smells of french toast, bacon, coffee and all sorts of fruits. She dropped onto a chair and grabbed an orange.  
  
"Good afternoon Hermione."  
  
"Good afternoon sweetheart, did you have a good sleep?"  
  
Elisabeth nodded, "Where's everyone else?"  
  
"Ron took the kids back home, he had to work today, Oliver dragged himself off to Quidditch practice, Fred and George had to get in a shipment of Dr. Filibusters' and Neville and Lavender went to start looking for a house for you and your dad. I have no idea where Remus and Sirius are and I have a feeling I don't want to."  
  
Harry came bounding down the stairs, more like a nine-year-old than a twenty-nine year old.  
  
"What on Earth are you doing Hermione?" he bent to kiss Elisabeth, and then grabbed an orange and started to peel it.  
  
"I'm making breakfast, I had to go out and buy groceries, all you had in the fridge were mustard and pickles." She paused to set down a plate of food in front of Elisabeth and hen continued her tirade. "You ate better when you were living in the flat with Ron. And you have an eleven-year-old daughter with you."  
  
Harry shrugged, "Elisabeth is happy, aren't you Lis?"  
  
"Sure she's happy, but only because she has no real memories of a decent meal."  
  
"She does so, my grocery day is Saturday, that's all."  
  
Hermione rolled her eyes and sat down with a cup of coffee, "When you," she looked pointedly at Harry and paused for effect, "finish breakfast I want you to go have a shower and get dressed. Then we'll figure out what you're going to pack and what you're going to sell."  
  
"My bid is on the shag rug and the velvet chesterfield." Elisabeth piped up.  
  
"We are not selling the rug! Or the chesterfield. That's final."  
  
"No, you're right, we won't sell them, we'll burn them."  
  
Elisabeth wrinkled her nose, "We can't burn them, Greenpeace will be after our necks, we should pour salicylic acid over them and let them melt quietly away."  
  
Hermione laughed.  
  
"Do you two know how much I paid for that sofa?" Harry demanded.  
  
"You didn't pay anything for it, you and Ron stole it from the Slytherin common room."  
  
"We did not! We stole a chair from the Hufflepuff common room."  
  
"Ohhh, big difference."  
  
"There is, there's a lot more dignity in stealing something from Hufflepuffs then Slytherins."  
  
"There was absolutely no dignity at all in what you two did," she turned and looked at Elisabeth. "It was the middle of the war that basically hinged on the entire existence of man kind and you looked off the front lines and there were two guys running away with this chair, trying to outrun this little Hufflepuff kid that they beat up so they could get the chair."  
  
"What were we supposed to do? We just finished school, we both had pregnant wives and I'll be damned if we could afford furniture."  
  
Hermione shook her head, "You shouldn't have gone out and got us knocked up then." She muttered.  
  
"What was that?"  
  
"Nothing."  
  
Harry wolfed down the rest of his breakfast, muttering about women and how they always blame men for everything and men should just move to another planet.  
  
Hermione said that it sounded very well but couldn't they wait until the kids were grown?  
  
He finally finished his breakfast and raced back upstairs for a shower, shouting praises at Hermione for the delicious breakfast.  
  
Elisabeth helped Hermione clear the table but the older woman did not need Elisabeth's help in washing the dishes as she opted to do it with magic.  
  
When they were sitting down again Elisabeth tossed caution into the wind and asked Hermione the question that had been tearing at her mind since the previous day. "Why didn't people like my mother?"  
  
Hermione did not look surprised by the question but she took her time answering it. "People, liked Susan well enough when she wasn't dating Harry. He and I were the popular couple, we were Head Boy and Girl, and we were favourites to win the war. Harry and I did date for a time, to please the people. But it didn't work; you can't date the person who you tell all your secrets to. At least we couldn't. So we broke up, still friends of course, the only thing different was that we didn't, well, you know." She glanced at Elisabeth who nodded. "Well, when your father started dating Susie, there was an uproar. She wasn't a bad person, she wasn't a mean person, she was in fact very pretty and very smart. When she got pregnant out of wedlock, people saw this as a final blow; they overlooked the fact that I was pregnant too. They married of course, but nobody ever really got over it." She smiled, "your dad is just being a prat, no one will bother you at Hogwarts, unless you end up in Slytherin, then your dad will disown you." She laughed, Elisabeth liked her laugh, her face brightened, like she was happy just because there was something so wonderful to laugh at.  
  
"What-what happened to her, my mother, I mean?"  
  
We don't know for sure," she sighed, "Half of those casualties, nobody who killed whom. Susan was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Well, we were all in the wrong place at the wrong time, it was a bloody war for crying out loud, it's just that the rest of us weren't killed."  
  
"Why don't they all hate Ron too?"  
  
"Because Ron is mentally challenged and they all probably figured that the only reason I married him was so that he didn't have to live with his mother the rest of his life. That or so I could live off his social security."  
  
Elisabeth laughed, "Seriously?"  
  
"Well, that is probably what everyone thinks, and Ron is retarded, just not enough to collect social security."  
  
Harry came down the stairs and poured himself a cup of coffee, "How are my two favorite ladies?" he kissed both of them on the top of the head and dropped into a chair.  
  
"It's a good thing I'm not Lavender," Hermione said, "Neville would think that I'd fallen in love with you, he'd feel bad because he thinks he isn't adequate."  
  
"Yeah, well, it's a little late for Ron to be worrying."  
  
"If you don't mind, I'd rather not think about that." Elisabeth said.  
  
"Well, how do you think you came about?"  
  
"K-mart. I was a blue light special. Some assembly required."  
  
"We never put your brain in, I kept it for myself."  
  
"Thanks dad, that's encouraging."  
  
"If it makes any difference, you wouldn't be much smarter even with the brain, Harry sure isn't."  
  
"Jerk."  
  
"You're eating again?" Harry had just grabbed another apple.  
  
"I'm a growing man."  
  
"Growing my ass," Hermione said, "You've been the same height since fourth year."  
  
"Come off it. The only reason you think I'm short is because-"  
  
"Because you are short."  
  
"No, because you're married to Ron who has been seven feet tall since he was six."  
  
"Anyway, do you think we can start figuring out what to pack."  
  
"The chesterfield, everything else can be replaced."  
  
"No dad, we will be keeping everything else, the chesterfield can be replaced, I am planning on having friends."  
  
"Real friends won't care about your dad's furniture."  
  
"Then I don't suppose I'll have any real friends."  
  
"Destrua!" Herman's voice carried from the front room.  
  
"You didn't!" Harry cried, racing to the front room.  
  
He threw the door open, "You did! How could you?  
  
Elisabeth peered out from around her father's legs. It appeared Hermione had taken her wand to the chesterfield. No there was an empty, smoldering patch in the middle of the front room.  
  
"You needed a new one anyway." Hermione said, observing the empty area.  
  
Harry shook his head. "That thing had so many memories."  
  
"The dungeons have lots of memories too. Doesn't mean they should still be in existence."  
  
Harry shook his head and laughed. "What do you think we're going to sit on until we move?"  
  
"You have a floor. And chairs. Make do, you slept on the kitchen table for three months after school ended."  
  
"Seriously?" Elisabeth asked.  
  
"Yes and you and the other two slept in dresser drawers."  
  
"You're kidding."  
  
"Wouldn't count on it." Harry looked at her over the tops of his glasses.  
  
"Oh. My. God. You have GOT to be kidding me."  
  
"Give four seventeen year olds three kids and a war, you're lucky you didn't sleep in the cupboards."  
  
Elisabeth shook her head and Hermione smiled.  
  
"Come on you guys, I want to get packed up before next Thursday."  
  
Elisabeth cast one last despairing glance at her father and went up stairs to decide what she needed. 


	4. 4

A/N*I've taken a couple of liberties with the script by making Lily an Animagi  
  
Disclaimer: Yes, I do own Harry Potter and Crew, they sleep under my bed and I feed them table scraps. Unless you're serious about suing me in which case I claim nothing but the plot. And Oliver.  
  
"What do you mean, 'how do we do this?'"  
  
"Well really people, I can't just strut onto the pitch, say Hi I'm Harry Potter, I've returned practically from the dead and are we going to start playing or what? It's not that easy."  
  
"No its not-Sirius what on Earth are you doing?" Sirius was gnawing on his arm in an extremely dog-like fashion and it had caught the attention of everyone at the table.  
  
"Fleas."  
  
"Ewww! Uncle Sirius!"  
  
"You try living in the Forbidden Forest and not attracting fleas."  
  
"Why were you in the Forbidden Forest?"  
  
"The last of The Dark Army fled into the Forest after the war. I've been trying to clear them out."  
  
"Well at least you became flea infested while doing something noble." Harry said dryly.  
  
"Can we get back on topic?"  
  
"Right, Harry, just tell everyone the truth. That'll be easy enough."  
  
"You know it isn't that easy. People were upset enough when I left, when they find out WHY I left. You know nobody ever liked Susan, thought I should have ended up with 'Mione."  
  
"I thought you should have ended up with Hermione too." Ron said.  
  
"I love you too sweetheart." Hermione said coldly.  
  
"You know what I mean."  
  
"Anyway, they'll probably dig the poor woman up and kill her all over again." Harry said.  
  
"Nobody likes the person who steals their hero." Lavender said wisely.  
  
Harry looked suddenly at his daughter. "And what of Elisabeth? Children will taunt her. I wouldn't doubt if she'll get Howlers."  
  
"Harry, she'll be every bit as popular as you ever were."  
  
"I recall Harry only ever had two friends."  
  
"Hey! What about Neville? What about Seamus and Dean? What about you and George? And Oliver?"  
  
"What about us mate?" Oliver asked cheerfully.  
  
Harry glared and kicked Oliver under the table.  
  
"You look like a hedgehog when you frown." George observed.  
  
Harry lunged out over the table and was stopped short by Remus. "Now, now children."  
  
"S'all in good fun." Said George laughing.  
  
"Children? What of children? I have a child myself thank you very much."  
  
"And you were a child when you had her." Sirius muttered, then in a louder voice, "You'll be forgetting that I changed your nappies will you?"  
  
"Ah shut up you old dog." Elisabeth gasped at the language but Sirius only laughed.  
  
"You may be a son of a stag but you're definitely no more than Bambi." Most of the table roared with laughter but Elisabeth was relieved to see that the other children were as confused as she.  
  
"Son of a bird too," Remus said smiling, "no wonder you're a chirpy thing."  
  
"What are you talking about?" Will asked.  
  
"Doesn't matter, we wouldn't want to give the gods feet of crumbled clay."  
  
"GENTLEMEN! Back on topic. Please!"  
  
"Do you have any suggestions if you're so smart?"  
  
"Yes, Harry can go back and say he wanted his child raised in the same environment he was raised in-"  
  
"ARRRGGGHHH!!! I may have been young, and I may have been screwed up by war but honestly woman! In the same environment as I was raised in? Bloody hell!"  
  
"You know what I mean Harry." Hermione said, exasperated. "Tell them that the magical world held more power when you did not grow up in it. Tell them you wanted Elisabeth away from the fame."  
  
"Better yet tell them you wanted her to grow up away from us." Ron said, still smarting from when his wife yelled at him.  
  
"That would work. But where am I going to live?"  
  
"EDINB URGH!" came the reply in a chorus of voices.  
  
"For chrisake Potter, we didn't come all the way over here so you would move to St. Petersburg."  
  
"St. Petersburg eh? I hear it's pretty over there."  
  
"HARRY!"  
  
Harry grinned, "Alright, alright. 'Lisbeth, do you think you can handle moving away from your friends?"  
  
"What friends?" Elisabeth asked sourly.  
  
"Right, well. When are you guys taking the kids to Diagon?"  
  
"Next Thursday, we're meeting Malfoy and his daughter, she's starting second year."  
  
"They proved it was his eh?"  
  
"No, Malfoy just felt sorry for the kid, what with Pansy for a mother and nobody really wanting her. As a matter of fact they proved it wasn't his but with his new kind, nobleness he kept her anyway."  
  
"Who was the father?"  
  
"Crabbe."  
  
Harry twisted his face up and shook his head. "Poor kid, what did she end up looking like? Or is she invisible, a figment of someone's imagination. We all know Crabbe can't get it up."  
  
Ron snorted and Fred spewed tea across the table.  
  
"No, we can see HER perfectly fine." Hermione said sourly.  
  
"Aww, relax Hermione," Harry said, pulling the woman onto his lap and hugging her, "We don't mean any harm. Will you stay to help us pack?"  
  
This seemed to visibly brighten Hermione but Ron was different story.  
  
"What am I supposed to do without my wife for a week?"  
  
"Mas---"  
  
"The children." Hermione said severely.  
  
"Sorry babe." Harry said sheepishly.  
  
Hermione smiled and shook her head. "Of course I'll help you pack. And you can stay with us until you find a place."  
  
"When can you start work Potter?  
  
"Oh really Oliver-"  
  
"As soon as I find a place. What kind of brooms are out there?"  
  
"You've gotta have a FeatherFlame3000 there isn't anything better."  
  
"I've still got the old Firebolt in my vault at Gringotts. I have my wand and schoolbooks and everything in there."  
  
"I remember that Firebolt." Oliver said smiling, "I also remember the strip McGonagall tore off me when you got it."  
  
"I'll tell you when it's ready Wood." Harry said, in high-pitched imitation of McGonagall. Elisabeth wondered vaguely if it was the same McGonagall who was Headmistress at Hogwarts.  
  
"Harry glanced at his watch. "You kids should be off to bed."  
  
"It's ten in the morning!" Daniel said, yawning.  
  
Hermione gave them one of those mother looks that you can't master until you've become a mother.  
  
Elisabeth tried again; "You guys are staying up."  
  
"One day, grasshopper, you will be able to stay up past ten thirty a.m. too." Harry replied.  
  
There was a knock on the door, "Come in!" Harry yelled.  
  
The door opened and Rosco stepped in, "To lazy to open the door yours-"  
  
He had finally realised that there were several other people at the table and they were staring at him in the same unflattering way as he was staring at them.  
  
He looked at Harry; "Old school friends Ross, dropped in to visit."  
  
"I thought you went to an all boys school?"  
  
"These are their wives." He gestured at Lavender and Hermione, sitting on his lap.  
  
Rosco raised an eyebrow. "Well, I'd better be off then, wouldn't want to intrude." "Er-right, hey Ross! I'm moving to Edinbrough."  
  
"What? You can't just, just, just up and move!" he blustered  
  
"Actually."  
  
"You sleep on this Potter, sleep on it, I'll talk to you later." He nodded to the guests and left.  
  
'You always did sugar coat things Harry." Remus said.  
  
"Yep, that's old Harry, never knew what he was hinting at."  
  
"Oh shut up." Neville clapped him warmly on the back.  
  
"Come on you little ones, bed time."  
  
There was the necessary grumbling but they were tired and wanted (very deep down, so deep they wouldn't admit it if you asked them) to go to bed.  
  
Elisabeth went up to her bed and fell asleep marveling at the closeness of the ten adults downstairs. 


End file.
